'Israel training Brits on UAVs which violate human rights'

By JPOST.COM STAFF

January 14, 2011 11:12

Human rights group Amnesty International on Friday said British soldiers are being trained in Israel in the use of unnmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which have been "field-tested on Palestinians" during IDF operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in 2009, Sky News reported.

Britain is set to purchase 30 of Elbit's WK450 UAVs, based on the Hermes 450 system, in a deal which Sky News says is worth nearly one billion pounds. As a result of the deal, British troops have been training in Israel in the use of the drones.

"Amnesty International has documented the role of drones in serious human rights violations by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza," Amnesty International UK Campaigns Director Tim Hancock told Sky News.

"There is already growing international concern over the use of drones in remote unlawful killings, sometimes amounting to extrajudicial executions," Hancock explained. "It would seem wholly inappropriate for UK forces to be trained in the use of drones by a country with a track record of applying this technology in grave abuses of people's human rights."

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